


a lot, a lot

by sanguinedawns



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 04:24:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19221523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanguinedawns/pseuds/sanguinedawns
Summary: It happens by chance. Or maybe not. He doesn’t really know. They’re studying for their respective classes, preparing for midterms, books sprawled on the floor in the cramped aisle, which is now theirs, when Sasuke glances up, “Hey.”Or; Naruto falls headfirst in love.





	a lot, a lot

**Author's Note:**

> i've been sick and in the mood for fluff which sns fic community is somehow severely lacking smh. anyway here is cute boys in love. 
> 
> ps. i'll update the canon fic sometime next week. i almost done w the next chapter.

Naruto peeps through the space between the stacked books. They’re all dusty in this section mostly because no one ever uses them. They’re those thick encyclopedias and dictionaries curated from around the world and if he knows one thing then that’s that college students rarely use such heavy text as research books. To be honest, thanks to the god given gift known as the internet, students rarely check out library books unless they’re forced to look for primary resources. But that’s all history majors.

 

He accidentally gets his foot stuck on the carpet in the space where it’s all uneven, making him almost fall forward, but thankfully he catches himself on the shelf he’s peeping behind. Unfortunately, his struggle isn’t soundless so the object of his, uhm, _staring_ per se turns to look around. The other person calls out, in the same bored gravelly tone they always possess, “Is anyone there?”

 

Instantly, Naruto ducks. He holds his breath too for good measure. He’s been at this for more or less the past three weeks and getting caught now will critically setback his plans. Future plans. In the future. A long way into the future. It’ll happen one day for sure. For now, though, he wouldn’t like to blow his cover behind the— _Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907_ , he reads. Jesus Christ, that book looks heavy. If it were to fall on his head, he’s bound to lose the few brain cells he vouches to Sakura every time she complains about his idiocy.

 

The ~~object~~ person of his desires returns to his task. He’s pacing up and down the aisle, stopping every single time in front of the same set of shelves while he highlights the reading he’s holding in hand. This is sort of his getaway place Naruto has concluded. Every Thursday evening after lectures end the boy comes here, pulls out whatever homework he has for the following week and continues to work on it.

 

“I’m really bordering stalker territory now,” Naruto whispers to himself. To be fairly honest, he hadn’t meant for this to last this long. He’d stumbled upon this section of the library out of pure need one evening when he was trying to get away from his distracting friends. This part is nearly always isolated, so he’d gotten a good chunk of his child development assignment done until he realized he wasn’t alone. In the next aisle, there was another person, quiet and kept to themselves as they worked on their homework. Curiosity got the best of him when he peeked through the thick set of books, and he’s not into fate or whatnot. But. _But_.

 

It was love at first sight.

 

The other guy must be from a different department because he’s never seen him around the psychology building or department. He mustn’t be STEM either because he’s often hanging around their quad waiting for Sakura to be done for the day or to fetch lunch with Kiba after his pre-vet courses are over. Regardless, he’d never seen the stranger before, and the first look had Naruto’s heart racing.

 

It’s still racing as he watches the boy—Sasuke, he’d learned the next week when he’d walked back in to finish another assignment and hoping to test his luck and had found the boy talking to someone at the checkout desk. She’d called him Sasuke. It was a nice name to go along a nice face. Naruto sighs sitting on his haunches and holding up his cheeks with both hands, “I’m so stupid.”

 

He brings his backpack to his front, plucking out the reading for his gender psychology class. They’re brainstorming ideas for their final project next class, but he needs to finish the readings first. He plugs his headphones into his iPhone, scrolling down the music app and clicks his most recent playlist. The music helps drown the wishful thoughts that overwhelm him, his eyes pleading to flit over to the gap between the books and steal one last glance of the boy.

 

Naruto sits facing the wall with his legs crisscrossed. The topic is interesting, so he does kind of gets engrossed in it. That is until he feels a tap on his shoulder. Immediately he takes out his headphones, looking over his shoulder and coming face to face with a crouching Sasuke.

 

Naruto’s heart thuds. Loud and ceaseless.

 

“Hey, sorry to bother. But I was wondering if you had a spare pencil?” his voice is even smoother up close, deeper too. His eyes are dark but there is a slight grey to them and his hair—oh god, he’s staring. Naruto is most definitely staring.

 

He blinks, quickly turning around and digging through his backpack, “Yeah, of course.”

 

Sasuke continues, “I usually am not this unprepared. I’ve just had a long, shitty day.” Naruto presents him the writing utensil, now frowning, and the boy takes it.

 

“Sorry to hear that but,” he turns again looking into his backpack and brandishes a KitKat bar. He’d bought it after his behavioral psych course when they’d gotten their midterm grades back and he managed a solid B+. He was super proud of himself. “I usually like a snack when I’m having a bad day. My mom says an empty stomach is devils’ ground.”

 

He proffers the candy to Sasuke who just eyes it warily before Naruto realizes he’s biting back a smile, “Ah, let me guess. You don’t like sweets.” He scratches the back of his neck with his free hand, ready to retract his chocolate when Sasuke takes it from him.

 

“I don’t,” he replies but then he says evenly, “But mothers are rarely wrong so.”

 

If the ground swallowed him whole right now Naruto wouldn’t even complain because Sasuke’s got this light to his eyes, and a quirk to his lips that’s not quite a smile—just _almost there_ —that it makes his pulse rocket.

 

Dumbly, Naruto nods.

 

The conversation sort of peters out after that and Naruto wishes desperately, he could prolong it and make the boy stay. But alas Sasuke waves the pencil and gestures towards his own aisle, “I should get going.”

 

“Right.”

 

\--

 

Naruto doesn’t see Sasuke the next time he visits the library. Or the next time. It’s rotten. He also completely bombs his elective course’s midterm before he enters the library and wishes that the semester would end already so he can go home and bury himself in his mom’s cooking and his grandma’s stories. To make the day worse the reason behind the flutter of his heart isn’t there yet again. Naruto grumbles setting down his books in the aisle and starts working on his assignment. It’s a research paper not due for another week but he needs a head start because one of his friends’ birthday is coming up and he really wants to party away the disappointment this weekend.

 

He makes considerable progress on the paper when he’s interrupted. He looks up to find Sasuke standing at the end of the aisle, waving lightly in his direction. Naruto smiles and Sasuke jogs up to him—pausing before he’s close enough to search his backpack—and returns the pencil he borrowed.

 

“You wouldn’t believe how much this thing helped me,” he starts, eyes flitting to the open textbooks, laptop, and papers in Naruto’s lap. He’s a messy learner who needs space to spread out all his stuff.

 

Naruto unzips the first pocket of his backpack letting Sasuke continue, “Turns out my bad day turned into a bad week.”

 

Frowning, Naruto glances up, “I’m sorry.”

 

“You say that a lot,” Sasuke points, “It’s fine, but I completely forgot we needed pencils to write in our criminal law class because our TA is an ass who hates students using pens. Guess who forgot?”

 

“Not you considering you _stole_ mine,” Naruto teases and immediately regrets it because he’s not on that level of comfort with this guy. He shouldn’t just be saying things—

 

Sasuke snorts, but it’s more of a half-laugh. And Naruto loves the fucking sound of it.   


“I clearly remember borrowing it with the promise of returning it,” he gestures to Naruto’s backpack. “Anyway, thanks. You really saved me.”

 

Sasuke turns to leave and Naruto’s heart jumps to his throat because he doesn’t know when he’ll see him again and he’s had a shitty ass day so in a last-ditch effort he tests his luck, “Hey!”

 

“Yeah?” Sasuke looks over his shoulder and the way his bangs frame his face makes it look more angular. Sharper. Naruto wants to touch it.

 

“You’re not a fan of sweets, but what about coffee?”

 

Sasuke raises a brow, amusement clear as daylight on his face, “You’d be hard-pressed finding a college student who doesn’t like coffee.”

 

“Right,” Naruto grins stupidly until.

 

“So…” Sasuke stretches out the word, his lips rounding out, “Are you just curious about my caffeine habits or?”

 

Naruto stands up on his knees, “Would you like to get some?”

 

They go to the 24/7 coffee hotspot a little way from campus. It’s a quaint coffee shop mostly run by students from their Uni and a few long-time staff. Naruto orders a Frappuccino which Sasuke pointedly notes as not being _real_ coffee while Sasuke himself gets a shitty watered-down Americano. They talk about everything and nothing. Introducing each other properly—his full name is Sasuke Uchiha, he’s a third-year pre-law student and he’s the second son of their parents. Naruto shares his own details; psychology major attending school with life-long best friend, the only son and a third-year as well.

 

It’s a miracle they hadn’t run into each other earlier because they discover their favorite spots on campus are the same.

 

They walk back to campus together, stopping when there is a fork in the road leading towards the dorms and apartments that are close to the University offering accommodation for those who don’t want to pay dorm fees. Naruto lucked out with the grant he’d gotten through a scholarship he applied in his last year of high school. So, every year that foundation covers his dorm fees.

“This was fun,” Sasuke easily admits and Naruto’s buzzing with the excitement. They exchanged numbers earlier and the prospect of getting to know Sasuke makes him incredibly happy. “I’m this way.”  


Naruto follows the line of where his thumb is pointing, “Oh, you’re off campus?”

 

“Yeah, I got an apartment to myself. You’re welcome to come over sometime,” Sasuke shrugs.

 

Nodding Naruto stares at his feet and then up again, scratching his cheek, “Thanks for this.”

 

There’s a crease between Sasuke’s brows, he lets out a low chuckle and it’s _sweet_ and makes Naruto’s knees feel like mush, “You’re the one who paid for the drinks. It seems you keep treating me.”  


“I don’t mind!” Naruto supplies. Then adds for banter, “Though you’re kinda a dickhead for extorting broke college students to feed you.”

 

“Not my fault you’re foolish and easy to swindle,” Sasuke says so calmly that Naruto can’t help but laugh. Throwing a light punch to the other’s shoulder which he returns by pulling his ear. Something about the easiness between them makes the whole exchange unsurprising. Naruto’s not usually this comfortable around people. Growing up he didn’t have many friends minus Sakura.

 

“Whatever, asshole,” Naruto rolls his eyes sipping the last of his drink. He stares at the remnants of whipped cream and wonders, “Maybe drinking this shit so late at night was a terrible idea.”

 

Sasuke laughs now, loud and wonderful, and shakes his own ice-cold Americano, “Oh, I’m definitely not falling asleep now.”

 

Somehow Naruto can’t bring himself to regret it. Not when he’s brought the brilliant smile to Sasuke’s face.  

 

\--

 

This becomes a routine. Thursday evening study sessions and overly-priced coffee at the expense of a good night’s sleep. Naruto never tells Sasuke about his early morning 8 am and how for the past few weeks he’s been practically braindead every time he’s sitting in the lecture. Fortunately, that’s the easiest class of his of the semester so he has the leniency to fuck around. _Unfortunately_ , the night prior to the class he’s either restless due to caffeine or straight up a wreck due to pretty dark eyes clouding every part of his dreams—sometimes those dreams aren’t even innocent and those are the worst of the nights.

 

Either way, Naruto’s happier than he’s been in ages. He even gets to do partial credit for the mid-term he bombed, and he most definitely aces the next final he has. Sakura questions him one day why he’s suddenly so fond of the library, but he’s afraid if he said so, if he told her, the magic will undo. The pocket of happiness will disappear which is ridiculous because despite their casual banter, despite Sasuke’s incessant teasing, the boy still joins him every Thursday.

 

The semester ends and starts up again. He goes home to his mom and dad and his grandmother comes and stays with them for Christmas. They eat the traditional meals and Naruto insists on homemade ramen which his mother happily obliges. Kurama, his pet dog, doesn’t leave his side the entire break and Naruto obviously sends all the slobbery selfies he takes with the pup to Sasuke. Because Sasuke likes animals. And Naruto likes Sasuke. A lot. _A lot a lot._

So, the semester starts again, and Naruto’s nervousness gets the best of him. Sasuke would reply to his texts all the time—never sending his own selfies which bummed him out a little—but that doesn’t mean he still wants to hang out this term. Besides, after getting to know the boy personally he’s been helplessly falling. All his worries vanquish at the sight of the other boy in their designated library spot.

 

Sasuke greets him, his black Henley t-shirt stretching over the expanse of his shoulders, “Criminal Law II sucks ass.”  


Naruto laughs dropping his backpack next to Sasuke and pulling out his laptop, “Every year half the class fails Ab Psych.”

 

Sasuke groans leaning his head onto Naruto’s shoulder, it gets his heart racing. Because no matter how much they hang out, no matter how much they talk, Sasuke gets his blood pumping, his skin tingling, his heart beating just by existing.

 

“We’re so fucking screwed.” He balances his chin on Naruto’s shoulder and peers up at him through thick, black eyelashes—the grey of his eyes glimmering—, “Promise me when I drop out and get disowned by my father, you’ll let me live in your backyard.”

 

Naruto wants to promise him the world, but for now, he settles for, “Okay. Promise, Kurama’s doggie house is yours.”

 

Sasuke punches his shoulder.

 

\--

 

It happens by chance. Or maybe not. He doesn’t really know. They’re studying for their respective classes, preparing for midterms, books sprawled on the floor in the cramped aisle, which is now _theirs_ , when Sasuke glances up, “Hey.”

 

Naruto’s chewing on his ball-point pen, meeting Sasuke’s eyes to urge him to continue, “That pink-haired girl. Is she your girlfriend?”

 

There is a punctuated silence in the library after the sentence. The place built to be essentially quiet suddenly deafens entirely to Naruto’s ears. Sasuke’s asking about Sakura. Pretty, beautiful, strong, smart _Sakura_. Naruto wants to cry. Run to his mother and hide as he did from the bullies when he was a kid. Instead, he channels his father’s selflessness, and puts on a small smile, “No, she isn’t.”

 

A beat later, he asks with a heavy tongue, “Are you interested?”

 

Sasuke responds assuredly, “Yeah.”

 

The sinking feeling doubles, the pinch in his chest tightening. Naruto grips onto the pen and looks down, “I can ask—”

 

“In you,” Sasuke cuts him.

 

“What?” Naruto looks up. His ears are ringing now and the silly organ that’s been taken to Sasuke since the very first glimpse traitorously soars, childishly, _helplessly_.

 

Sasuke clears his throat, crawling on his knees towards Naruto, “I’m interested in you.” His hands are flat on the ground while he stares at Naruto who’s sitting with his legs crisscrossed, “If you’ll have me, that is.”

 

Naruto’s lips tremble and he nods in fear of saying something stupid but then he groans, punching Sasuke in the shoulder making him wobble a little, “Dickface, I was about to cry!”

 

Sasuke winces, “Cause I like you?”

 

“No!” Naruto rushes, hands raising in an attempt to fix whatever irreparable mistake his stupid big mouth was going to make, “I like you too.”

 

 _A lot, a lot_.

 

It comes out a tad breathless. But that’s about the only way he can describe how Sasuke makes him feel.

 

Sasuke breaks the tight air around them, closing in and breathes against his lips, “Tiny lie there. I might be a little in love with you.”

 

Naruto meets him fully, lips slanting against Sasuke’s. Naruto’s not one for fate or anything. He doesn’t even know if soulmates are real or not. But kissing Sasuke feels like comfort. The way he scratches at the base of Naruto’s neck, parting and then going back to press lips to Naruto’s, turns his insides into butterflies. He tastes a little like the shitty coffee he drinks, the one they had gotten before coming to the library. He himself must taste like the frappe.

 

Exhaling, they stay close with foreheads pressed to each other, “Sorry if you taste the frappe.”

 

Sasuke kisses the corner of his mouth, smiling against it, “If it’s you it’s always okay.”

 

Naruto warms at that.

 

He _does_ pass his midterm and so does Sasuke. They end up mingling with each other’s friend groups and Sakura only holds a grudge until she sees how happy Naruto is with Sasuke. For the most part, everything stays the same. He still goes to the library every Thursday, but he no longer has to steal glimpses of the boy who’d stolen his heart at first sight because he’s right there holding his hand helping him through some very shitty psychology assignments.

 

He likes him a lot. _A lot, a lot_.

**Author's Note:**

> KUDOS ! COMMENTS ! ALL THAT JAZZ !


End file.
